Fantasia will show not one, but two films from Takashi Miike (Just like last year, actually.) He is so popular, and his work is seen with such regularity at Fantasia I think we can safely call him one of The Usual Suspects.

For the uninitiated, Miike usually makes several films per year. They can be incredibly violent or cute and goofy. Sometimes both at once. He’s special. If you’ve heard of Ichi The Killer and Audition, that’s him. Those films are not cute, BTW.

The two being shown this year are Ace Attorney and For Love’s Sake (the festival’s opening film). The trailer indicates that it’s a bizarre sort of musical.

Scene from Takashi Miike’s Ace Attorney.

Staying with the Asian selection for a bit, we also have Dragon (formerly known as Wu Xia), which was shown at Cannes in 2011. It’s a period piece featuring the martial-arts prowess of Donnie Yen and the handsome face of Takeshi Kaneshiro.

In the early editions of Fantasia, we might get several movies from another martial-arts star, Jet Li.

He isn’t seen as often, these days, but this year he is in The Sorcerer and the White Snake. Festival favourite Gordon Liu (36th Chamber of Shaolin, Kill Bill) appears in the 1980 film Fists of the White Lotus (aka Clan of the White Lotus).

Speaking of Fantasia favourites, Michelle Yeoh is seen in a China/Hong Kong/Taiwan co-production called Reign of Assassins. (Photo above.)

And I remember reading good things on the Internet about the Chinese film The Sword Identity. (Photo above.)

There are several films from Taiwan, including the big and brawny Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, the more gentle and ethereal Starry, Starry Night, and You Are the Apple of My Eye, a sort-of high-school rom-com based on the director’s own experiences.

There are lots of goodies from South Korea. Sunny is a story about high school girlfriends who re-unite 25 years later. It was a box office success, won lots of awards, etc.

The Doomsday Book is a three-part anthology film about the end of the world, which looks intriguing.

Punch is a comedy-drama about a teacher who helps a troubled youth.

Vietnam returns to Fantasia screens with the the sword-fighter film Blood Letter.

I’ll try to cover more films from those countries and from India, Thailand and the Philippines another day.

Moving right along to….zombies! Gotta have a few, at Fantasia.

Juan of the Dead is a zombie movie from Cuba.

I first heard of the Cuban zombie comedy, Juan of The Dead, in 2011. Now, at last, it’s coming to Fantasia.

There are at least four films with zombie in the title. Bone and bones, cold and dead, blood and its permutations (Hemorrhage) also appear. There are even two films with sushi in the title. Don’t confuse one with the other.

Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal, and Game of Werewolves are two intriguing titles

Fantasia will show several documentaries, but I’ll just mention one for now, one that I’m really looking forward to – We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists. It’s about the group known as Anonymous, whose members wear Guy Fawkes masks. We’ve certainly seen lot of those around here recently.

The Fantasia Film Festival will show 160 features this year. Based on the trailers and a quick look at the programme, I think I’d probably enjoy about 80 per cent of the films on offer.

Fantasia is the highlight of my summer, of my whole year, really, but, very sadly, I’m not able to take my vacation during the festival this year, as I’ve done most years since it began, so I’ll just have to squeeze as many films as I can into my non-working moments.…sigh……and then share my thoughts about them with you.

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